Bitcoin Association Annual Report 2019 – Extracts: Academia

04May2020

In April, Bitcoin Associationpublished its first annual report, charting the activities of the organization and the progress made by the Bitcoin SV network during the Association’s first year of operations. In these series of extracts, we take an in-depth look at elements of the report, this time focusing on academia – a key area of focus for the Association as it works to develop the human element of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem.

Academia represents a key tenet in Bitcoin Association’s strategy for engaging with and educating the business leaders of today and tomorrow about the power of the BSV blockchain. The Association is steadfast in its belief that by generating interest and funding initiatives within the sphere of academia, it can help to build the pipeline of Bitcoin SV professionals for the future.

Throughout its first year of operations, Bitcoin Association – represented by Founding President Jimmy Nguyen and nChain Chief Scientist Craig Wright – made a number of appearances at premier educational institutions, meeting with students and officials alike, in addition to speaking at and supporting a number of events – delivering presentations and lectures to the next generation of developers, entrepreneurs and innovators. Highlights of the year included appearances at Oxford University and Cambridge University in the UK, as well as a day-long event at Tsinghua University in China.

For the 2019-2020 academic year, Bitcoin Association was proud to sponsor the Cambridge University Metanet Society, helping the on-campus organization to arrange weekly meet ups for students interested in learning about and developing projects built on Bitcoin SV. Already, a number of promising projects have emerged from the Society, headlined by HIVE – which won second place at Bitcoin Association’s second Bitcoin SV Hackathon, in addition to demonstrable progress made by BlockPixels and MetaVibe amongst others.

The Cambridge University Metanet Society organised the Metanet Forum in October, 2019 which saw Dr. Craig Wright deliver an inspiring address about his vision for the future of the internet on Bitcoin SV – dubbed the Metanet.

In December 2019, Wright and Nguyen accepted an invitation from the Tsinghua International Blockchain Association to speak at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China – one of Asia’s foremost academic institutions – during the Bitcoin Association China Roadtrip. As part of the trip, together with Bitcoin Association, the Tsinghua International Blockchain Association hosted the ‘History of Bitcoin’ which brought together 50 students, alumni and tech enthusiasts for a series of lectures – including Nguyen’s ‘The Original Bitcoin & Enterprise Blockchain’ and Wright’s ‘Hashing and History of Peer Systems’.

In 2020, Bitcoin Association announced the establishment of the Satoshi Nakamoto Scholarship, an award to support the study and technological development of blockchain applications made possible by Bitcoin SV. The first recipient was Robin Kohze, a PhD student in human genomics at Cambridge University, who had distinguished himself with sustained success in Bitcoin – both as a developer and an advocate.

Kohze won second place at Bitcoin Association’s second Bitcoin SV Hackathon with HIVE – an incentivized-information protocol inspired by molecular dynamics – a project he plans to develop into a fully-functioning platform with the assistance of the scholarship. In addition, Kohze founded the Cambridge Metanet Society.

‘As part of our organization’s mission, we want to support the next generation of great Bitcoin thinkers and developers,’ said Nguyen explaining the decision.

‘Robin Kohze is an exceptionally talented mind who understands Bitcoin’s technical capabilities to transform data interactions, and we are thrilled to award him our first ever Satoshi Nakamoto Scholarship. We look forward to his HIVE project being realized to create real world value, and also appreciate his work to educate fellow Cambridge students about the Satoshi Vision for Bitcoin.’

Bitcoin Association intends to continue to develop its programs and outreach focused on academia in its second year of operations. For more information on the Association’s work with academia to date and plans for the coming year, read Bitcoin Association’s first annual report below.